1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices for facilitating the hitching of a trailer to the draw bar of a towing vehicle, and more particularly concerns an easily removable and adjustable guide for directing a hitch member mounted on the forward end of a trailer into alignment above a hitch ball mounted on the draw bar.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The connection or "hitching" of a towing vehicle to a trailer such as those commonly used for carrying boats, campers and the like, requires that the towing vehicle, having a coupling ball, be backed toward the trailer in a manner causing proper juxtaposition of the ball with a receiving socket on the fore portion or "tongue" of the trailer. For convenience, a caster support wheel is often downwardly directed from the tongue of the trailer in order to raise the tongue higher than the level of the ball. The towing vehicle may then be backed up until the ball is near alignment below the receiving socket. Since the driver of the vehicle is unable to see either the trailer tongue or the hitch ball when backing toward the trailer, it is nearly impossible to align the trailer tongue above the hitch ball during backing of the vehicle. Furthermore, a substantial danger exists that the vehicle will be backed too far, resulting in damage to the rear of the towing vehicle.
This problem is conventionally solved by utilizing a second person to signal to the driver. Without the second person, however, it is necessary for the driver to back up a small distance, get out of the vehicle to inspect the relative positions of the ball and the socket, and return to the vehicle, often repeating this sequence several times. When the ball and socket are aligned, the supporting caster wheel is raised to cause a lowering of the tongue socket onto the ball.
A desirable solution to this problem is to provide a V-shaped guide about and slightly above the ball and mounted to the vehicle. Such guides are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,420,549 to Robinson; 4,974,866 to Morgan, and 4,254,968 to DelVecchio.
Such prior art guides, however, suffer from a variety of shortcomings. For example, in order for the guide to be effective, any elongated arms which guide the socket to a position above the ball must extend sufficiently aft of the vehicle that they intercept a misaligned tongue and guide it laterally to the center of the vehicle where the ball is located. However, if the arms extend sufficiently to be effective as guides, they interfere with the articulation between the vehicle and the tongue by striking the tongue when the vehicle makes a sharp turn or when backing. This can cause severe damage to the guide, the hitch, the trailer, or the towing vehicle.
The Robinson device attempts to solve this problem by providing pivotable arms. However, these arms require manual manipulation and fastening in their outwardly extended position and, furthermore, require a large unsightly structure on the back of the towing vehicle which is undesirable when the vehicle is used without towing. Additionally, it requires moving parts which are subject to wear, corrosion and malfunction.
The DelVecchio and Morgan guides may be removed from the vehicle, however, the process requires un-bolting which may necessitate the use of hand tools, and could be an unpleasant chore, especially in cold weather.
Devices having fixed guides are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,773,356 and 4,226,438. However, such fixed guides not only provide permanent, unslightly attachment to the rear of a vehicle, but require a trade-off between making the arms extend sufficiently long to be effective and yet sufficiently short as not to interfere with articulation between vehicle and trailer.
If the towing vehicle is backed with excessive force against the trailer tongue, the arms or other portions of the device may become bent, and no longer useable. Over a period of time, normal friction between the trailer tongue and the guide means will deleteriously effect the tongue and guide means.
Although ball-type trailer hitches all operate on the same principle, they come in a variety of sizes. The draw bars also come in a variety of configurations, and may be mounted upon variously-sized step bumpers as generally employed on pickup trucks.
It would be desirable to have a single, universal guide unit mountable to any towing vehicle having a hitch of the ball type. The installation of some hitch guides requires significant modification to the towing vehicle, such as by welding additional supports onto the draw bar. Such modification is expensive, and results in a permanent attachment which cannot conveniently be removed, for example when selling the towing vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,185 to Chakroff et. al. attempts to address the problems of adaptability and removability. However, it is based upon the central premiss that the ball which is mounted upon the draw bar has a downwardly directed bolt which may penetrate an aperture in the mounting plate of the guide means. One commonly used trailer hitch utilizes an extended draw bar which slidably and securably engages a rearwardly directed length of square tubing. In this configuration, the ball is invariably welded upon a post which is upwardly emergent from the draw bar extension. The Chakroff device could not be used with such a towing hitch.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a hitching guide which will effectively guide the ball of a trailer hitch into underlying juxtaposition with the socket of a trailer tongue so that they will engage when the tongue of the trailer is lowered.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hitching guide of the aforesaid nature which may be retracted from the guiding position while towing or in normal operation of the vehicle.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a hitching guide of the aforesaid nature which may be easily removed without the use of tools.
Further objects of the present invention are to provide a hitching guide of the aforesaid nature which is amenable to low cost manufacture, may be utilized with a multitude of hitch arrangements, and will not cause damage or wear to the trailer tongue.
These and other beneficial objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description.